Unacceptable offering
07/03/15 03:42
The Old Testament book of Leviticus has a complex set of instructions for a wide variety of human actions, including specific explanations of five different types of offerings that are to be made to God by faithful people. To understand those offerings requires knowledge of the context of the law that arose in that period of wandering under Moses’ leadership and the period of judges that followed. The roots of our people, like those of many others, are distinctly tribal. Abraham and Sarah come from tribal backgrounds and began their journeys and wanderings by leaving their families, but taking with them a small band of people who were family to them. Two generations later, when Jacob wrestled with an angel on the eve of a partial reconciliation with his brother, the name Israel was granted as the name of a family. It was, at that point, simply the name of the descendants of one man. Later, through generations of births and adoptions and marriages, it became the name of a people, and, as God promised, the name of a nation.
All of this is to say that our people came into the season of laws with lots of prior customs and traditions. Some of those customs and traditions were incorporated into the law. Others were excluded as the people had to learn how to live as free people. The specific descriptions of offerings in Leviticus, were, among other things, a complete rejection of the concept of human sacrifice. In the stories of our people, there is a faint memory of a time when the tribe practiced human sacrifice. Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac, however, is the foundational story of our people in which the idea of human sacrifice is categorically rejected. Whenever we tell that story we remind ourselves again that we belong to a people who do not engage in that practice.
Here is what we offer to God:
Grain offerings (minchah): out of gratitude to God for the bounty of the earth and the power of crops to sustain life, a voluntary gift of some of the harvested grain is offered back to God. In the days before the temple, the offered grain was burned. Later portions and then all of the grain was given to sustain the priests who served in the temple.
Sin offerings (chataah): When people unintentionally committed sins and guilt dominated their life, an offering was made to free the individual from that guilt. Often an animal was offered by a priest, with the blood, inner organs and some of the fat consumed by fire as an offering to God.
Trespass offerings (asham): When the guilt was towards another person as well as God and restoration was required a ram was offered, with a portion of that ram going to make restitution. The ram provided food for those gathered in the court of the tabernacle.
Peace offerings (shelem): One of the best animals of the flock was given for a communal meal as a sign of thanks to God.
The fifth type of offering later became a stumbling block and required specific additional instructions from prophets. It was the burnt offering (olah). In Leviticus, the burnt offering is always a voluntary act, given as a sign of complete surrender to God. The offering, often a bird, ram or bull, was completely burnt until all was consumed by the flames and the smoke rose up and out of the temple.
In the days of Solomon’s temple, these offerings became excessive displays of wealth and little more. Instead of being used to demonstrate surrender to God, they became signs of wealthy patrons of the temple, that they had more than enough to care for themselves and their family. They could afford to make regular sacrifices to God that were denied to their less wealthy neighbors. The prophets, speaking for God, rejected these offerings. Micah, for example, points out that such offerings when justice is not present are meaningless, hated and despised by God.
Still, it was hard for our people to give up their ancient practices and sometimes selfish ways. The allure of wealth and the consumer society was in constant tension with the call to become people of God. Some even believed that they might be able to purchase God’s favor out of their accumulated assets instead of living justly with their neighbors. You don’t have to read far in the Bible to see the consistent rejection of such a notion.
Those ancient ideas, however, persist. The very language we speak has remnants of ancient ways in its vocabulary. The word holocaust has “olah” at its core. As horrific and repulsive as that concept is to God’s faithful people, the word we use to speak of the unspeakable terror and torture of God’s people is derived from the same word as the Levitical code used to establish the offering of surrender.
The word shows up also in an English word borrowed from the French adaptation of a Latin term borrowed from Biblical Hebrew. Immolation, has “olah” at its core and it is the English word for death by burning. Anyone who has ever witnessed an immolation, or its aftermath, can understand the loud rantings of the prophet Amos:
“I hate, I despise your feasts,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and cereal offerings,
I will not accept them,
and the peace offerings of your fatted beasts
I will not look upon.
Take away from me the noise of your songs;
to the melody of your harps I will not listen.”
All of this is to say that our people came into the season of laws with lots of prior customs and traditions. Some of those customs and traditions were incorporated into the law. Others were excluded as the people had to learn how to live as free people. The specific descriptions of offerings in Leviticus, were, among other things, a complete rejection of the concept of human sacrifice. In the stories of our people, there is a faint memory of a time when the tribe practiced human sacrifice. Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac, however, is the foundational story of our people in which the idea of human sacrifice is categorically rejected. Whenever we tell that story we remind ourselves again that we belong to a people who do not engage in that practice.
Here is what we offer to God:
Grain offerings (minchah): out of gratitude to God for the bounty of the earth and the power of crops to sustain life, a voluntary gift of some of the harvested grain is offered back to God. In the days before the temple, the offered grain was burned. Later portions and then all of the grain was given to sustain the priests who served in the temple.
Sin offerings (chataah): When people unintentionally committed sins and guilt dominated their life, an offering was made to free the individual from that guilt. Often an animal was offered by a priest, with the blood, inner organs and some of the fat consumed by fire as an offering to God.
Trespass offerings (asham): When the guilt was towards another person as well as God and restoration was required a ram was offered, with a portion of that ram going to make restitution. The ram provided food for those gathered in the court of the tabernacle.
Peace offerings (shelem): One of the best animals of the flock was given for a communal meal as a sign of thanks to God.
The fifth type of offering later became a stumbling block and required specific additional instructions from prophets. It was the burnt offering (olah). In Leviticus, the burnt offering is always a voluntary act, given as a sign of complete surrender to God. The offering, often a bird, ram or bull, was completely burnt until all was consumed by the flames and the smoke rose up and out of the temple.
In the days of Solomon’s temple, these offerings became excessive displays of wealth and little more. Instead of being used to demonstrate surrender to God, they became signs of wealthy patrons of the temple, that they had more than enough to care for themselves and their family. They could afford to make regular sacrifices to God that were denied to their less wealthy neighbors. The prophets, speaking for God, rejected these offerings. Micah, for example, points out that such offerings when justice is not present are meaningless, hated and despised by God.
Still, it was hard for our people to give up their ancient practices and sometimes selfish ways. The allure of wealth and the consumer society was in constant tension with the call to become people of God. Some even believed that they might be able to purchase God’s favor out of their accumulated assets instead of living justly with their neighbors. You don’t have to read far in the Bible to see the consistent rejection of such a notion.
Those ancient ideas, however, persist. The very language we speak has remnants of ancient ways in its vocabulary. The word holocaust has “olah” at its core. As horrific and repulsive as that concept is to God’s faithful people, the word we use to speak of the unspeakable terror and torture of God’s people is derived from the same word as the Levitical code used to establish the offering of surrender.
The word shows up also in an English word borrowed from the French adaptation of a Latin term borrowed from Biblical Hebrew. Immolation, has “olah” at its core and it is the English word for death by burning. Anyone who has ever witnessed an immolation, or its aftermath, can understand the loud rantings of the prophet Amos:
“I hate, I despise your feasts,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and cereal offerings,
I will not accept them,
and the peace offerings of your fatted beasts
I will not look upon.
Take away from me the noise of your songs;
to the melody of your harps I will not listen.”
—Amos 5:21-23
Every fibre of our being wants to reject immolation in every form.
It is a gristly topic for my blog this morning and I apologize for it. But there are times when we must name the evil that persists in our world and remind ourselves how deeply it is ingrained in our story. And we must put our voices with those of the prophets and work to remove it from our vocabulary, even if it only exists in the twisted irrational thinking of mental anguish and brain disease.
God has seen too much pain of misguided offerings. God’s anger has turned to tears of pain.The message of our faith is clear:
“No, O people, the LORD has told you what is good, and this is what God requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” — Micah 6:8